Interview: Sustainable development agenda pursues economic, social progress while highlighting environment protection

A sustainable development agenda the United Nations is in the process of defining pursues economic and social progress while highlighting environment protection, said UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Wu Hongbo.

"The so-called sustainable development is not just about economic growth," he told Xinhua in a recent interview. "It involves three dimensions -- economic development, social progress and environment protection."

"Each one of them is indispensable," he added.

Negotiators from 193 UN member states agreed Sunday evening on a draft blueprint for sustainable development over the next 15 years which will be adopted at a United Nations Summit in late September at UN Headquarters in New York.

The agreement, called "Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," outlining 17 goals with 169 specific targets, basically redefines how the world works together to end poverty, promote prosperity, and combat climate change.

"The goals and targets can be categorized as People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace and Partnership," he said, adding that the five Ps have well explained the fundamental concerns of sustainable development.

Wu said the accord marks the first-ever global consensus that only focusing on GDP growth while ignoring environment protection or social justice is not the right path for development.

In this regard, he said the global community has agreed to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns and at the same time address social as well as environmental problems, which is a "revolutionary" change.

"This will profoundly benefit the world for generations to come, " he added.

NO ONE SHOULD BE LEFT BEHIND

During the negotiation process of the draft agenda, the UN member states have been stressing that "no one should be left behind," Wu noted.

According to the document, the world has vowed to end poverty in all its forms everywhere, especially to eradicate extreme poverty for all people, currently measured as people living on less than 1.25 U.S. dollars a day.

"With this measurable indicator, countries as well as international community can work out policies and ways to lift these people out of poverty," said Wu.

"It is a tough task," he noted, adding that to achieve that goal, it needs joint efforts of the global community as well as strengthened partnerships like North-South cooperation.

In this regard, the document has asked the developed countries to implement fully their official development assistance commitments in support of developing countries, he mentioned.

"This reflects the appeal from the developing countries for the developed countries to show their good will to cooperate," he added.

STRONG POLITICAL FORCE BEHIND AMBITIOUS COMMITMENTS

The 2030 agenda is going to replace the retiring 15-year-old Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a development plan that mainly targeted at developing countries from 2000 to 2015.

Wu noted that compared with the MDGs, which were proposed by a group of experts, the 2030 agenda has gathered member states, academia, civil society, among others to discuss its drafting for the global community as a whole.

"The document belongs to the world, to every country, which has laid a solid foundation for its implementation," he said.

Furthermore, the document has outlined means of implementation as well as follow-up and review mechanisms to track progress in implementing the goals and targets, he noted.

According to the document, the goals and targets will be followed-up and reviewed using a set of global indicators, and these will be complemented by indicators at regional as well as national levels which will be developed by member states.

"I think all these have made a complete development agenda for the international community," he said. "And we are more confident of its implementation." Endite